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Nottingham ready for the Big Kick Off against London Welsh

Nottingham Rugby have completed their preparations ahead of
their first home match of the season against London Welsh on Sunday
(Kick-off 3.15pm). The Oxfordshire based Exiles return to
Meadow Lane following their season in the Aviva Premiership for
what is being billed as 'The Big Kick-Off'.

The Green and Whites began their season in impressive fashion
with a 24-16 victory against Leeds Carnegie with a performance that
was built on some excellent defensive work and some clinical
finishing.

Head Coach Martin Haag commented, "It was a good performance
against Leeds. The team worked very hard in defence and we
took a couple of the opportunities that came our way.

"Realistically, it could have been 31-9 had we made the most of
the lineout we had on their line. They then scored a very
good try from behind their own posts which makes the scoreline look
less comfortable than it ended up being.

Looking ahead to this Sunday, Haag says that Nottingham face a
"massive challenge" against Welsh.

He said, "London Welsh are looking a tremendous team with a good
squad, who play a good style of rugby.

"They are very physical so it will be a massive challenge for us
at home and one we are looking forward to."

"There's plenty for us to work on and we can certainly
improve. They'll be amongst the favourites for the league and
I expect it to be a good game for the fans."

Nottingham go into the match relatively unchanged from their
previous outing. The only change sees Matthew Jarvis return
from illness to replace Rory Lynn at fly half.

The front row that caused Leeds all sorts of problems continues,
with Michael Holford and Campese Ma'afu either side of Jon
Vickers. Neilus Keogh and Dan Montagu start at lock while
Rupert Cooper, Captain Brent Wilson and Alex Shaw make up the back
row.

Sean Romans continues at scrum half while centres Joe Munro and
George Catchpole look to continue the development of their
promising partnership.

Ryan Hough, a try scorer last week, is joined by Edward Styles
and Andrew Savage in a back line that looked dangerous with the
ball in hand on the opening day.